More experienced devs may have thrown out a lot of the ideas the Half Life team ended up implementing as "too time consuming" or "practically impossible". Valve's devs at the time weren't experienced enough to make those assumptions, so they just worked their asses off to figure out how to do it.

Seems like you're talking out your ass about something you don't understand. To make the claim that "90% of California's forest shouldn't exist"(paraphrasing, correct me if I misinterpreted) as you did in one of your other comments is absolutely absurd. It illustrates a complete lack of understanding regarding the extremely varied and countless ecosystems present in California. California is not "a desert", California "has a lot of desert".

To be clear though: It definitely HAS been proven that the absurd amounts of fire suppression California has engaged in over the past several decades has indeed increased the severity of wildfires[1].

[1] https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/ES14...

I'm not trying to be combative, I just believe that it's important to question things we believe to be true when we don't fully understand the reasoning.

Admittedly, though I know OF Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I have no idea HOW Maslow came to their conclusions. So, I just looked it up:

> The most significant limitation of Maslow's theory concerns his methodology. Maslow formulated the characteristics of self-actualized individuals from undertaking a qualitative method called biographical analysis.[1]

> He looked at the biographies and writings of 18 people he identified as being self-actualized. From these sources, he developed a list of qualities that seemed characteristic of this specific group of people, as opposed to humanity in general.[1]

> From a scientific perspective, there are numerous problems with this particular approach. First, it could be argued that biographical analysis as a method is extremely subjective as it is based entirely on the opinion of the researcher. Personal opinion is always prone to bias, which reduces the validity of any data obtained. Therefore Maslow's operational definition of self-actualization must not be blindly accepted as scientific fact.[1]

Doesn't seem like the experiment was very rigorous or even scientific.

The linked article goes on to explain more modern and scientific research on the subject that seems to disprove some of the original hierarchy's assumptions.

[1] https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html#evaluation

Lol no. Those two things are not related, though it does give me some ideas.

I got into making music using DAWs and learned a lot of theory. I focus on making Synthwave/Outrun style music. Not the most technically complex genre sure, but there is a lot of room for creativity as the genre isn't very well defined. I also enjoy how Synthwave isn't really about musical complexity or technicality; instead, it's about the atmosphere. It's nostalgia for a time that never existed in a sense.

Now, all of this to say that I'm still not a great musician. I've been learning banjo for the past year, and getting pretty good at it.

I'll get to the point though: to me, algorithmic music isn't an end, it's a means to an end. The end in this case is composing music. Algorithmic music can be a source of ideas and inspiration in a way that nothing else can. This is especially true if we are able to specify the rule set for music generation. How many times have I sat down at the keyboard and tried to write a melody over some really cool rhythmic bass line I came up with? Countless times. If I could, for example, plug in the a key, rhythmic signature and feeling I'm going for and generate a melody, I would be able to finish more songs. I could use the generated melody as a starting point; it might spark some new ideas. This would be even cooler if I could provide the algorithm with a wav file or some midi and have it try to generate a bass line, melody, chord progression etc.

So, I guess I see algorithmic music generation less as something to replace human made music and more as a tool to aid in sparking creativity in humans composing music.

Calling Cyberpunk cliche is like calling Lord of the Rings cliche; it makes no sense because they invented the cliches.

I guess it could be something where I take a few months off and do a few days at home and then a week or so on the road and then a few days at home, etc.

My employer has been letting me work from home as much as I want despite having no official work from home policy, so that's contributing to a general uptick in mental positivity. When I first started at this place I was commuting 1.5 hours both ways. I would leave at 9AM and wouldn't get home until 9 at night. It was destroying my will to do anything.

I've been hitting the gym 5-7 days a week and seeing some good progress. I feel very physically fit.

I've made some new friends over the past couple of months which I feel really good about since it can be so difficult to make friends as someone going into their 30s.

Despite all of this, I still just feel like I want jump in my car and drive around the country for a few months. I want to get out. I miss having adventures.

Very few things in my life feel new and exciting anymore. The only time I ever feel truly fulfilled is driving on a clear canyon road or hiking in the mountains.

I don't think it's too bad though. I believe that every person feels this way right around my age. I just need to make sure I don't settle for a boring and unfulfilled life like so many people are willing to do.

Make no mistake. The negative things that your boss is saying about you are almost certainly untrue.

Your boss has no right to say those things to you or to target you like that. In most situations, I would say talk to your boss's boss or HR, but it seems like the company you work for would really be of no help if they already let it get this bad.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any solid solutions. If I were you, I would look into unemployment compensation laws in your area and see if you could get unemployment benefits because you quit your job due to emotional distress.

If I were in your situation, I would quit the next time I walked into work.